Multiple disc storage container

ABSTRACT

A disc storage container for holding multiple discs comprising, a front container cover, a back container cover, and a spine, and attachment means on the spine, the front container cover and back container cover being moveable between a container open position enabling access to the contents of the container and a container closed position for storage purposes. A multi-tray assembly for retaining a plurality of discs within the container, the multi-tray assembly comprising two connectors and two trays for retaining and holding discs, each connector comprising a container-engaging member for engaging to the attachment means on the spine of the container and two holding means for rotatably holding a respective tray, so that each tray can be rotated about the holding means of the connectors to allow access to the discs retained by the trays when the container is in a container open position.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 11/339862,filed Jan. 26, 2006, which application is incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to disc storage containers and inparticular to disc storage containers capable of holding multiple discs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Optical discs such CDs, VCDs and DVDs are currently the preferred mediumfor storing media for distribution to consumers. Numerous storagecontainers have been developed to hold these discs during shipping,display for sale, and subsequent home storage. Most existing storagecontainers are designed to hold only a single disc. Other storagecontainers are designed to hold multiple discs, however, these designsare generally a compromise between size and the number of discs. This isespecially true for storage containers designed to hold more than twodiscs which require containers with significantly larger dimensions thanthe single disc storage containers.

In recent years a need has arisen to package multiple discs, more thanone or two, in a single storage container. Various companies are nowselling and packaging media products recorded on multiple CDs, VCDs andDVDs, and many products contain up to six or more discs. Some examplesof multiple disc media products are musical “box sets” from particularartists or bands or unabridged audio books. Another example is computersoftware where new complex programs and computer games contain largeamounts of data that require multiple discs for storage. A furtherexample of such a product is a group of related movies such as sequelsand prequels, or movies by a certain director or actor, or moviescontaining special features and bonus materials that require multipleDVDs. Also popular are TV series that are recorded on multiple DVDs dueto their lengths.

With many new media products that require packaging of multiple mediastorage discs, there is a desire from manufacturers for a disc storagecontainer that can hold multiple discs in a relatively compact space. Inparticular, many manufacturers desire that the thickness, length andwidth of a multiple disc storage container be substantially equal to thedimensions of a single disc storage container such as the thickness,length and width of the (industry standard) popular DVD storage,container. Manufacturers also desire a container that may be easilyconfigured to hold even or odd numbers of discs while providing space tostore booklets in the storage container. Furthermore, there is also adesire to provide a storage container where it is possible to view theprinted surfaces of all the individual discs without removing them fromthe trays of the storage container.

Most current solution is to increase the length or thickness of theconventional disc container to accommodate the additional disc or discs.This has proven unacceptable to both industry and the consumer. Anychange in the storage container size would require that manufacturerswarehouse multiple storage container sizes. Moreover, larger storagecontainers take up considerably more retail shelf space and accordinglyreduce the available shelf inventory in retail stores. Consumers, likeretailers, find that the larger size disc storage containers take upmore space and are more difficult to store. As a result, there has beena growing consensus that there is a need for an improved multiple discstorage container that is based upon the dimensions of the conventionalDVD storage containers in use today.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a storage container for holdingmultiple discs comprising, a front container cover and a back containercover, a spine disposed between the front container cover and backcontainer cover, and attachment means at the opposite ends of the spine,the front container cover and back container cover being moveablebetween a container open position enabling access to the contents of thecontainer and a container closed position for storage purposes, and amulti-tray assembly for retaining a plurality of discs within thecontainer, the multi-tray assembly comprising two connectors and twotrays for retaining and holding discs, each connector comprising acontainer-engaging member for engaging a respective attachment means onthe spine of the container and at least two holding means for rotatablyholding a respective tray, so that each tray can be rotated about theholding means of the connectors to allow access to the discs retained bythe trays when the container is in a container open position.

Another aspect of this invention is a multi-tray assembly for retaininga plurality of discs within a storage container comprising twoconnectors and two trays, each connector comprising a container-engagingmember for engaging a respective attachment means on a spine of thecontainer and at least two holding means for rotatably holding arespective tray, so that each tray can be rotated about the holdingmeans of the connectors to allow access to the discs retained by thetrays when the container is in a container open position.

A further aspect of this invention is a multi-tray assembly forretaining a plurality of discs within a storage container comprising twoconnectors and a plurality of trays, each connector comprising acontainer-engaging member for engaging a respective attachment means ona spine of the container and a plurality of holding means for rotatablyholding a respective tray, and a plurality of couplers for rotatablycoupling trays held by the holding means and additional trays, so thateach tray can be rotated independently to allow access to the discsretained by the trays when the container is in a container openposition.

An additional aspect of this invention is a storage container forholding multiple discs, the container including at least two trays forretaining discs thereon, wherein the trays are mounted for rotationabout respective axes parallel to each other and wherein the trays areconnected together and to an inner surface of the container by means ofa pair of connecting members located at respective ends of the trays.

A further additional aspect of this invention is a storage container forholding multiple discs, wherein the container is adapted to retain atleast six discs in positions whereby a surface of each disc may be seenwithout requiring any other disc to be removed, and wherein thethickness of the container is substantially no larger than 16.0 mm.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following detailed description. It should beunderstood, however, that the specific embodiments in the detaileddescription are given by way of illustration only, since various changesand modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from this detaileddescription.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, withreference to the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a storage container made in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the present invention with the storagecontainer in a container closed position;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the storage container shown in FIG. 1with the storage container in a container open position and showing amulti-tray assembly;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the storage container shown in FIG. 1with the storage container covers in a container open position andwithout the multi-tray assembly;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a multi-tray assembly made in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the present invention shown with a spine;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the multi-tray assembly shown in FIG. 4attached to the spine;

FIG. 6 is a partial exploded view of the multi-tray assembly shown inFIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a tray made in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a storage container made in accordancewith an alternative embodiment of the present invention with thecontainer covers in container open position showing a multi-trayassembly;

FIG. 9 a is a perspective view of a multi-tray assembly made inaccordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 b is a partial perspective view of the multi-tray assembly shownin FIG. 9 a;

FIG. 10 a is a perspective view of the multi-tray assembly shown in FIG.9 a unassembled and without connectors;

FIG. 10 b is a partial perspective view of the multi-tray assembly shownin FIG. 10 a;

FIG. 11 a is a perspective view of the multi-tray assembly shown in FIG.9 a partially assembled with connectors detached; and

FIG. 11 b is a partial perspective view of the multi-tray assembly shownin FIG. 11 a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As used herein, the term disc is defined to include any compact disc(CD), video compact disc (VCD), digital versatile disc (DVD), as well asany other media storage disc, optical disc or similar device used forstoring information. The preferred embodiment of the present inventionis designed to hold the standard 12 cm diameter disc, however, thepresent invention can be adapted for 8 cm diameter discs or discs ofsmaller or larger diameters.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, illustrated therein is a storagecontainer 10 made in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. The storage container 10 may generally be defined bya unitarily formed plastic body comprising a front container cover 12, aback container cover 14 and a spine 16 disposed between the frontcontainer cover 12 and the back container cover 14. Preferably, the edgebetween front container cover 12 and the spine 16 define a hinge 18 andthe edge between the back container cover 14 and the spine 16 defineanother hinge 18. In the preferred embodiment hinges 18 are livinghinges wherein the edges between the container covers and the spine ofthe unitary plastic body have reduced wall thickness to provide a regionabout which the container covers can rotate. In other embodiments,different materials, hinges and separate container covers and spines maybe used.

FIG. 1 illustrates a storage container 10 in a container closed positionwhile FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate a storage container 10 in a containeropen position. Hinges 18 enable the storage container covers to movebetween container closed and container open positions. When the storagecontainer 10 is in a container closed position, it is suitable forstorage, transportation and display in retail settings. When the storagecontainer 10 is in a container open position, its contents may beaccessed.

FIG. 2 illustrates a storage container 10 in container open positionwith an attached multi-tray assembly 20 for retaining a plurality ofdiscs within the storage container 10.

The multi-tray assembly 20 is also illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. InFIG. 4 the multi-tray assembly 20 is shown detached from the spine 16while in FIG. 5, the multi-tray assembly 20 is shown attached toattachment means 28 of the spine 16 of the storage container 10. In thepreferred embodiment, the multi-tray assembly 20 comprises twoconnectors 22, and two trays 24. Each of the connectors 22 comprises acontainer-engaging member 26 for engaging a respective attachment means28 and a pair of integrally formed holding means 30 for rotatablyholding a respective tray 24. Thus, the trays 24 are connected togetherand to an inner surface of the storage container 10 by means of a pairof connectors 22 located at respective ends of the trays 24.

In a preferred embodiment of the storage container 10 the attachmentmeans 28 on the spine 16 are clips and the container-engaging members 26are shafts to provide a snap fit between the container-engaging members26 and the attachment means 28.

As illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6, the trays 24 are rotatably fitted onto the holding means 30 of the connectors 22 enabling the trays 24 torotate independently of each other about the holding means 30 to allowaccess to the discs retained by the trays 24. Preferably the holdingmeans 30 of the connector 22 is a hole and each tray 24 has extendingpins 31 that rotatably fit into the holes to provide a rotational fitbetween the holding means 30 and the tray 24. Thus, the trays 24 aremounted for rotation about respective axes parallel to each other.

In FIG. 4 the two trays 24 are rotated so that they are in an openposition to allow access to the discs retained by the trays 24 when thestorage container 10 is in a container open position as shown in FIG. 2.In FIG. 5, the two trays 24 are rotated so that they are in a stackedposition which allows the multi-tray assembly 22 to fit within thestorage container 10 when the storage container 10 is in a containerclosed position as shown in FIG. 1. As can be seen in FIGS. 4 and 5, thetrays 24 can rotate throughout a range (typically 180°) sufficient toaccess the discs like the pages of a book.

FIG. 7 illustrates a tray 24 made in accordance with a preferredembodiment of the present invention. The tray 24 has two planar surfaces32 and preferably a disk engagement means 34 on each planar surface ofthe tray 24 for retaining and holding a disc. The trays 24 are in theshape of two overlapping circles thus reducing the surface area requiredto hold more than one disc on a tray. In the preferred embodiment, eachdisc is retained and held in a respective circle on opposite planarsurfaces of the tray, in this fashion, the printed surfaces of bothdiscs are visible without having to remove any of the discs from thetray. Furthermore, each disc is accessible to be removed individuallywithout having to remove any other discs. In different embodiments ofthis invention and depending on the capacity required for the particularconfiguration of the storage container there maybe more than one discengagement means on each planar surface of the tray, or alternatively itis also possible to have configurations where there is only one discengagement means per tray.

Referring now back to FIG. 3, in the preferred embodiment the presentinvention, inside surfaces 36 of both the front container cover 12 andthe back container cover 14 have disc engagement means for retaining andholding a further disc. In different embodiments it could be possiblethat there is a disc engagement means only on one of the containercovers or none at all depending on the configuration and capacityrequirement of the storage container. In alternative embodiments of thepresent invention, the inside surfaces 36 of the front container cover12 and the back container cover 14 may have literature clips (not shown)configured to hold literature booklets in the container cover forinformation relating to the discs as may be desirable in different mediaproducts. It other embodiments of the storage container the insidecontainer covers may contain both literature clips and disc engagementmeans.

There are numerous different types of disc engagement means known in theart for retaining and holding discs. In the preferred embodiment of thisinvention, the disc engagement means 34 is an extending rosette forengaging a center hole of a disc. It is also possible to use discengagement means other than ones that engage a center hole of a discsuch as engagement means that clamp on to the edges of a disc. Otherdesign features can also be added to the tray without departure from theinvention such as lips around the tray or depressions in the shape of adisc to help retain the disc in place or finger holes in the trays forallowing the user to grasp outer edges of the disc for removal from therosette.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the dimensions ofstorage container 10 in the container closed position is that of theindustry standard DVD storage container with thickness, width, lengthdimensions of substantially 15.0 mm, 135 mm, and 190 mm. Of thesedimensions, the most important is the thickness. Height and width may beallowed to vary but it is preferable to keep the thickness atapproximately the nominal 15.0 mm, though allowing for manufacturingtolerances this thickness may be increased to 16.0 mm. In thisembodiment, the invention advantageously provides a storage containerwith the capacity to hold six discs in the size of an industry standardDVD storage container, with disc engagement means on the inside surfacesof the front container cover 12 and back container cover 14, and withtwo trays 24 each tray having a disc engagement means 34 on both planarsurfaces 32 to hold two discs on each tray 24. A further advantage ofthis embodiment is that the printed surface of each disc may be seenwithout requiring any other disc to be removed.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, the multi-trayassembly can be adapted to hold more than two trays. In FIG. 8, in aperspective view, an alternative embodiment of storage container 10 a isshown in a container open position with a four tray multi-tray assembly20 a. In this particular embodiment, the storage container 10 a has thecapacity to hold up to ten discs.

FIGS. 9 a, 9 b, 10 a, 10 b, 11 a, and 11 b illustrate an alternativeembodiment of a multi-tray assembly 20 a with four trays. The multi-trayassembly 20 a comprises two connectors 22, two couplers 38, two trays 24and two additional trays 25, each connector 22 comprising acontainer-engaging member 26 for engaging a respective attachment means28 on the spine 16 of the container and at least two integrally formedholding means 30 for rotatably holding two respective trays 24 (shown indetail in FIGS. 11 a and 11 b), and at least two couplers 38 forrotatably coupling the two additional trays 25 to the trays 24 held bythe holding means 30 (shown in detail in FIGS. 10 a and 10 b), so thatthe two trays 24 can be rotated about the holding means 30 of theconnectors 22 and the two additional trays 25 can be rotated about thecouplers 38, to allow access to the discs retained by the trays when thestorage container 10 a is in a container open position. Couplers 38 arecapable of rotatably coupling two trays so that each tray canindependently rotate with respect to each other. And as illustrated inFIGS. 10 b and 11 b, the couplers 38 are preferably of the type that cansnap fit onto the extending pins of the trays permitting easy assembly.

In other embodiments, the multi-tray assembly may be adapted to receivemore trays and thus increase the capacity to hold more discs.Accordingly, storage containers for larger capacity multi-trayassemblies may need to have correspondingly larger dimensions toaccommodate larger multi-tray assemblies.

It should therefore be apparent to one skilled in the art that variousmodifications can be made to the embodiments disclosed herein, withoutdeparture from the invention, the scope of which is defined in theappended claims.

1-21. (canceled)
 22. A storage container for holding multiple discs, thecontainer including at least two trays for retaining discs thereon,wherein the trays are mounted for rotation about respective axesparallel to each other and wherein the trays are connected together andto an inner surface of the container by means of a pair of connectingmembers located at respective ends of the trays.
 23. A storage containerfor holding multiple discs, wherein the container is adapted to retainat least six discs in positions whereby a surface of each disc may beseen without requiring any other disc to be removed, and wherein thethickness of the container is substantially no larger than 16.0 mm. 24.The storage container as defined in claim 22, wherein the thickness ofthe container is substantially no larger than 15.0 mm.
 25. The storagecontainer as defined in claim 22, wherein the dimensions of thecontainer are substantially no larger than 15.0 mm by 135 mm by 190 mm.26. A storage container for holding multiple discs, comprising: a frontcontainer cover; a back container cover; a spine disposed between thefront container cover and the back container cover; two trays assembledfor retaining a plurality of discs within the container; and amulti-axis arrangement for connecting the trays to the container,including at least: a first axis that is fixed relative to the spine,and two second axes each rotatable about the first axis, wherein eachtray is pivotable about a respective second axis to allow both traystogether to be positioned flatly against one of the covers when thecontainer is opened and the covers are positioned to lay flat on a levelsurface.